Fast food ads vs reality

1. Fast Food Ads vs. Reality
How the Media Influences Our
Food Choices…

2. The Business of Making
Food LOOK Good
•Food photography is a still life
specialization of commercial photography,
aimed at producing attractive photographs
of food for use in advertisements,
packaging, menus or cookbooks.
Professional food photography is a
collaborative effort, usually involving an art
director, a photographer, a food stylist, a
prop stylist and their assistants.

3. Styling Techniques:
•creating steam with cool air nebulizers or a combination of
chemicals that give off smoke that gives the appearance of steam;
•spraying food with water or mixtures of water, corn syrup, or other
liquids to keep food looking fresh;
•making a mixture of solid shortening, corn syrup, and powdered
sugar (essentially a very stiff frosting) that can be scooped to
simulate real ice cream;
•using a variety of browning agents (usually mixtures used to brown
gravies or sometimes heat activated liquids used in commercial
bakeries) to enhance the color/brownness of cooked meats and
poultry;
•using heavy cream instead of milk in bowls of cereal to prevent
flakes from becoming soggy too quickly.
•blanching green vegetables to just bring up their bright color, rather
than cooking them completely; other vegetables and foods may be
cooked just to color, so they do not brown or become wrinkled if
they must stand under the camera for a while.
•adding water to beverages so light will filter through better and add
sparkle to the drink.

4. Hamburgers and Sandwiches
•Hamburger photography is challenging because the buns
dent easily and an assembled burger is quick to lose its visual
appeal.
•When assembling the burger, the ingredients are held in place
with toothpicks and the meaty interior of tomato slices is
removed to avoid juice discoloring the ingredients.
•The meat patties are superficially cooked, the edges browned
with a torch and the meat made to look more appetizing with a
colourant.
•The edges of melted cheese slices may be brushed with
household cleaner to make them look freshly melted longer.
•Condiments such as mayonnaise are applied to the edges
with an applicator bottle.
•Sandwiches are assembled used similar techniques. Wet
paper towels are used to prevent the bread from drying out. If
a half sandwich is to be depicted, the bread and the
components are individually sliced with scissors and
assembled in place.

5. Salads
•Salads in food photography are composed with a view to
creating appealing textures, shapes and colors.
•To improve support and aid in composition, salad in a
bowl is built around a smaller bowl placed upside down
in the outer bowl.
•Salad greens are kept fresh and crisp by misting them
with cold water prior to composition.
•Salad dressing is not normally used, as it makes the
salad slippery and difficult to style, but the appearance of
dressing may be created by sprinkling herbs and spices
over the wet salad, or mixing them in oil and applying it
with a brush.

6. What you’re about to see is quite
surprising (and a bit disgusting)…

12. Something to CHEW on…
Did you know…
•Children are exposed to a food ad every 5
minutes while watching TV
•34% of those ads are for candy and
snacks
•28% are for high-sugar cereals
•10% are for fast foods

13. •The food industry spends billions of dollars
every year on advertising. Marketers are
very creative in using social appeal,
popular TV and film characters, games
and toys with brand logos to gain brand
loyalty and to get you to buy their product.

14. The Impact
•Exposure to food ads has been linked to:
–Overall increase in calorie intake
–Over-eating of fast food, candy and soft drinks
–Under-eating of fruits and vegetables
Children are influenced by media to make
unhealthy choices which lead to increased
health concerns such as diabetes, high blood
pressure, increased tobacco and alcohol use,
poor nutrition and obesity.